It took the train more than a half hour to get around the far bend and stop and back up. Cole stood on the back platform of it and said nothing as he watched the riders move away south down the dry wash. He stayed where he was and said nothing for the full half hour after the riders were no longer in sight and the train had gone around the bend and stopped and backed slowly up. When we got back to the water tower, Allie wasn’t there. Virgil stepped off the train and walked toward the wash. Stringer started to walk after him.
“Stay away from him,” I said.
“The bastards said they’d leave her here.”
“They’re safer if they got her,” I said.
“You knew they were lying.”
“We both knew,” I said. “But there wasn’t nothing to be done about it. “
“We got to discuss this,” Stringer said.
“Discuss it with me,” I said. “Don’t try to talk to Virgil.”
Stringer stared after Virgil.
“We got no horses,” Stringer said. “We can’t go after them on foot.”
I nodded.
“We’ll go back to town and get some,” I said.
“Quicker Cole gets back here,” Stringer said, “quicker we’re on our way.”
“He won’t come back,” I said.
“Won’t come back?”
I shook my head.
“Wait for me,” I said and walked after Cole.
Cole was standing on the little bridge over the wash, looking south down the wash.
I said, “We got no horses, Virgil.”
A half mile or so away, the wash curved slightly west and you couldn’t see down it anymore.
“I’ll ride the train on to Yaqui and get some.”
Cole still held the Winchester exactly as he had held it when he was talking to the Sheltons. He was squinting into the sun as he looked southwest along the wash. His face, half shielded by his hat’s brim, was without expression.
“I’ll bring the horses back here,” I said, “and if you ain’t here, I’ll follow you down the wash.”
Cole turned suddenly and walked off the bridge and began to edge down the side of the dry wash.
“You leave the wash,” I said. “Leave me a sign.”
Cole didn’t answer or look at me. He started walking southwest along the flat bottom of the wash, looking at the tracks in the dirt. I went back and got aboard the train.
We didn’t get to Yaqui until after six that night. Stringer, being a deputy, could roust people around a little and, even though some of the stores were closed in Yaqui, I was on the way back to Chester by 8:15 with three horses and a pack mule carrying supplies. There was a good moon, and the stars were bright, and all I had to do was follow the tracks.